The Anointed One

 Daniel 9:1-26

Welcome! Today we continue our study of the Book of Daniel, focusing on Chapter 9. First, I want to briefly remind you of the big picture, of the context of the Book of Daniel in the history, the true story of God and His interaction of people, in the Old Testament.

At the time of Moses, the Israelites had been delivered from Egypt and promised the land of Israel, but the promise was a conditional promise; it depended on the people continuing to follow after God, obeying His commands and remembering Him in worship and in day-to-day living. Well, the people forgot God, ignored His commands, and even sought to do the very things He had forbidden, such as worshiping false gods. And through Israel’s history, God raised up prophets who spoke warnings that unless the people repented and turned back to God and followed His ways, they would lose the land, Jerusalem and especially the Temple built by Solomon, the place where God’s Spirit dwelled, would become desecrated and destroyed.

One particularly vivid warning was given by the prophet Isaiah:

He lifts up a banner for the distant nations, He whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Here they come, swiftly and speedily! Not one of them grows tired or stumbles, not one slumbers or sleeps; not a belt is loosened at the waist, not a sandal thong is broken. Their arrows are sharp, all their bows are strung; their horses’ hoofs seem like flint, their chariot wheels like a whirlwind. Their roar is like that of the lion, they roar like young lions; they growl as they seize their prey and carry it off with no one to rescue. – Isaiah 5:26-29

Prophet after prophet gave similar warnings. Repent or lose Israel! Repent or be destroyed! Repent or be carried off into exile! But the warnings were ignored; the kings seemed to become ever more evil, ever more opposed to God, and the people followed their kings. And so, about 150 years after this prophecy of Isaiah, it happened. There were a series of incursions into Israel, a series of deportations of God’s people from Israel, one of which Daniel, then likely a teenager, was carried away from Jerusalem along with his friends. Eventually the city of Jerusalem was attacked and mostly destroyed, and the Temple, the precious Temple that had been made for God, was destroyed, many of its priests killed, and most of the artifacts carried off. The prophecy of Isaiah had come to pass.

As we have seen in this series on Daniel, Daniel spent pretty much the rest of his life in Babylon, except perhaps for brief excursions on behalf of the empire that he was forced to serve. As we have seen, Daniel was a man who refused to let himself lose sight of God, who refused to worship false gods, who despite intense pressures, remained faithful to God, serving Him and worshiping Him and praying to Him day after day after day. God raised Daniel up to become a powerful administrator in both the Babylonian empire, and later, the empire of the Medes and Persians, and God orchestrated circumstances so that Daniel had a major role in bringing leaders of both empires to a point of faith in the one true God. Let’s pick up the narrative in Daniel 9.

In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom— in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. – Daniel 9:1-2

This takes place shortly after the change of empires from Babylonian to that of the Medes and Persians. The God-orchestrated events of this change are described in Daniel 5 and were also given to Daniel prophetically prior to them taking place. The events of Daniel 6, when Daniel was thrown into a lion’s den for continuing to pray to God as he always had done, happen around this same time. Daniel at this point is an old man who has lived almost his entire life in Babylon, but his heart has always been in Israel; he even chose to face towards Israel as he prayed to God three times a day, every day.

This passage shows that Daniel was not only a man of prayer, but also a man of the Scriptures. He studied them. He pored over them. He thought about them. He meditated on them. He knew them. And this is a good reminder for us. I have shared before the passage about what Deuteronomy instructed all future kings to do:

When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left. – Deut. 17:18-20

We are forgetful people. You may have heard it said that someone’s mind is like a sponge – well, all our minds are like sponges. And what happens to sponges when you leave them out and don’t use them for a while? They dry out. And if they weren’t clean to begin with, they become smelly as bacteria start to grow wild in them. Our minds are like sponges like this as well. We need to continually be refreshing ourselves with God’s Word, keeping our minds and hearts moist towards Him. There are many ways to do this, but as a reminder, I strongly encourage you to make a daily habit of getting into the Word. It will change you. You will not be the same.

Well, the passage specifically mentions that Daniel was thinking about a passage in Jeremiah, one that said that the desolation in Jerusalem would last 70 years. At this point, how long has it been since the sacking of Jerusalem? It’s hard to know exactly, but there is no question that it is close to 70 years. It is close! There are two passages in Jeremiah that speak of the 70 years; one is in Jeremiah 25, and the other is the following:

This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place."– Jeremiah 29:10

Does anybody know the next verses? They are often quoted, but here let’s look at them in context:

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” – Jeremiah 29:11-14

So this is exactly what Daniel chooses to do – I don’t know if anyone else was doing this, or Daniel knew if anyone else was doing this, but as for Daniel, he chose to call upon God and pray to Him, seeking Him with all his heart about the restoration of Israel, seeking God for the fulfillment of this promise. Let’s read on in Daniel:

So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed: - Daniel 9:3-4a

Fasting, sackcloth and ashes were all signs of earnest prayer. A single-minded devotion to continual prayer, forsaking clothing, cleanliness, even food. But not just any kind of prayer; fasting and sackcloth and ashes were signs of mourning, appropriate for a prayer of repentance, which is what we are going to see. By the way we see these items and practices used in mourning from the book of Genesis (Jacob, when Joseph goes “missing”) up through the New Testament. I am going to read Daniel’s prayer in its entirety, and then talk about it. You may find it helpful to have your Bibles open to the passage because it isn’t going to fit on a single page of Powerpoint. Here is Daniel’s prayer:

“O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of love with all who love Him and obey His commands, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from Your commands and laws. We have not listened toYour servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes and our fathers, and to all the people of the land." – Daniel 9:4b-6

“Lord, You are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame—the men of Judah and people of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to You. O Lord, we and our kings, our princes and our fathers are covered with shame because we have sinned against You." – Daniel 9:7-8

“The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against Him; we have not obeyed the Lord our God or kept the laws He gave us through His servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed Your law and turned away, refusing to obey You." – Daniel 9:9-11a

“Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against You. You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem." – Daniel 9:11b-12

“Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. The Lord did not hesitate to bring the disaster upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in everything He does; yet we have not obeyed Him." – Daniel 9:13-14

“Now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for Yourself a Name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. O Lord, in keeping with all Your righteous acts, turn away Your anger and Your wrath from Jerusalem, Your city, Your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our fathers have made Jerusalem and Your people an object of scorn to all those around us." – Daniel 9:15-16

“Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of Your servant. For Your sake, O Lord, look with favor on Your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, O God, and hear; open Your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears Your Name. We do not make requests of You because we are righteous, but because of Your great mercy. O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For Your sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people bear Your Name.” – Daniel 9:17-19

I think this is one of the greatest prayers in the entire Old Testament. Here are some of the things I love about it:

1. The prayer is a response to, and is grounded in, Scripture. He knows what the prophets have warned, and seen it come to pass, and this prayer is a response to this. He mentions the conditional nature of taking the land back in Deuteronomy. Indeed the entire prayer is a response to his understanding of Scripture.

Do you pray like this? It is a powerful way to pray. When you have quiet times and read from God’s Word, spend time thinking about what you have read. For example, suppose you read Ephesians 4:2: Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. How do you respond to this verse? Do you respond at all?

Pretty much every verse in Scripture can be responded to in prayer. It may be a prayer based on deep personal reflection of your own life; this would be appropriate with the Ephesians 4:2 verse. It could be praising God. More than anything else, this has been my response as we have gone through Daniel. I praise God for His sovereignty, His wisdom, His mercy, His goodness – I see all of these things to thank Him for in this Book. Another response could be to pray for others.

2. Daniel prays knowing the full character of God. In this prayer Daniel speaks of God’s love (vs. 4-6) but also God’s righteousness (vs. 7-8), God’s forgiveness (vs. 9-10) but also God’s justice (vs. 11-14), God’s righteous anger (vs. 15-16) but also God’s mercy (vs. 17-19).

It seems like modern evangelical Christianity often gets out of balance on these things. Today there seems to be an unwillingness to speak of such things as God’s righteous anger, God’s holiness, God’s justice; and yet it is these very things that help us more appreciate and understand the seriousness of sin. Without an understanding of the serious of sinning before God, we fail to appreciate just how great a gift is the mercy and forgiveness offered through Jesus Christ. I am not speaking of all people, or all churches, but it is a common problem and I believe history will look at this as one of the great failings of the church as a whole of our age.

Some people have the mistaken belief that God has changed, that the whole justice and anger thing was just in the Old Testament, that now, in the New Testament, God is a god of love. This is doubly wrong! God has not changed. In the Old Testament, God was a god of love, then, too. God did not delight in sending the Israelites into exile, but he did it because He is a holy God, and watching generation after generation of Israelites become more and more wicked, He reached His limit. In part out of the love for future generations of Israelites He allowed them to go through this. And all of this was shadows of the much greater issue, the eternal future of every individual. God’s holiness is such that sin cannot be in His presence; as light has nothing to do with darkness, He cannot be with sin and remain who He is. This is because of God’s righteousness and holiness and justice. But because of God’s love and mercy, He sent Jesus into this world to die for our sin, to pay the price we could not pay, and to give us His Spirit, which will indwell us forever and, ultimately, make us eternally righteous, eternally without sin, so that we can stand and worship in His direct presence forever. History has moved on; in Jesus we see the fulfillment of so many things that were shadows and hints in Daniel’s time, but God has not changed; His nature has not changed.

3. Daniel prays honestly, transparently, and humbly. Daniel is detailed about their sins; he doesn’t just gloss over things quickly and say “sorry,” as I know I sometimes tend to do. By the way, a prayer like this is not possible unless you have first spent time thinking on meditating on what it is you have done that is wrong. This is an essential step in genuine repentance. Unless we understand the seriousness of our sin, the effects of our sin, the breadth of our sin, and the depth of our sin, we are likely to not take them seriously, and this means we won’t see them as God sees them. True prayer is not just talking to God, but communing with Him, and this will be impossible if we don’t see things as He sees them.

Along these lines, one thing that strikes me about the details of Daniel’s prayer is that he mentions shame. Shame in our culture, and even, it seems, in modern Christianity, has become a dirty word. Now it is true that we are not to live continually in a state of shame, for through Christ, confession and repentance brings forgiveness and the taking away of shame – we even sang about this in one of the songs this morning. But shame is an appropriate part of remorse and, it seems to me, also a fitting part of the process of genuine repentance.

4. Daniel prays using first person plural. That is, Daniel says “we.” This goes against the heart of our culture, that thinks only in “I.” Are you a part of your family? Then you are a “we.” Are you part of a group in a Bible study or other small group? Then you are a “we.” If you regularly attend a particular church, then you are a “we” with regards to that church. And we all are “we” with regards to our towns, our state, our country, our culture, and modern evangelical Christianity. With regards to each of these, we can and should pray using the “we” pronoun.

It is hard for us to get this, but God sees us both as individuals and as we’s. Until we really embrace this reality, we are leaving out an important aspect of God’s character; we are not seeing us as God sees us. Daniel was not personally guilty of many of the things he prayed about using “we,” yet he used it for this very reason. And at least some of the time, we should do the same.

I could keep on talking about this prayer; for example, I also think there is a lot to glean from looking at Daniel’s fervency. But we need to keep going or we will never get to the prophecy part of Daniel 9.

And I don’t want to set up unrealistic expectations for you, but of this prophecy, the famous mathematician, scientist and theologian Isaac Newton said, “We could stake the truth of Christianity on this prophecy alone, made five centuries before Christ.” So let’s continue with verse 20.

While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the Lord my God for His holy hill— while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. He instructed me and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision: - Daniel 9:20-23

While Daniel was still praying, Gabriel came. The implication here is not that Daniel had been praying continuously for days, or even maybe for hours, but a relatively short time. But Daniel had certainly set out to pray for a long time, days, or even longer. You don’t fast for 5 minutes; that’s not why they call it a fast! But the angel Gabriel came – the messenger angel, the one Daniel saw in a vision in the previous chapter – with another message. And he says he came as soon as Daniel began to pray; that is to say, God instantly heard and responded to Daniel’s praying.

Now a fascinating detail is that Daniel explains the time as the time of the evening sacrifice. Daniel has lived almost 70 years in Babylon, away from Jerusalem, and yet he still reckons time by the time of what had been the time for the evening sacrifice! Just like that detail in Daniel 6 about Daniel would face Jerusalem when he prayed, this shows how much Daniel’s heart was ever on the day of God’s restoration of His people, of when the Temple would be rebuilt and the sacrifices resumed. The daily evening sacrifice actually had been done in the midafternoon, from what I have read, and it included the sacrifice of a lamb as an offering for sin.

Another detail is what Gabriel says he has come to do. What is it? He says he has come to give Daniel insight and understanding. Wait. That isn’t what Daniel asked for, is it? Well, it is an answer to Daniel’s prayer but not in the way he expected. And God often does this. He knows what is best for us and, if there is something better than what we specifically ask for, He will give us the better gift.

Now I think this translation misses out when it has the angel say to Daniel “For you are highly esteemed.” In Hebrew the phrase is Key chamudotatah. Key means because, and atah means you. What about chamudot? The root word, chemdah means to delight in, to love with desire. In Haggai 2:7 it is translated as delight when it says “And the Desire of all nations shame come,” referring to Christ. That’s how God feels about Daniel! (And in us, by the way.) Wow! In the New Testament, John didn’t think it even worth mentioning his name compared to the fact that he knew that Jesus loved him, so he kept calling himself the disciple who Jesus loved. (And so are we, by the way.) Again, wow! So here is the message and the vision:

“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. – Daniel 9:24

The seventy sevens can also be translated as seventy weeks. We’ll get more into that in a minute. Now, that word “decreed” literally means, “chopped off,” “separated.” And who are they chopped off for? The Jews, the Israelites, and also for Jerusalem, the holy city.

Seventy sevens are chopped off for them, for what purposes? There are six of them. First, to finish transgression. Literally, this means to permanently restrain sin. The free reign of sin (such as we have in the world today) will be no more. Instead, sin will be permanently restrained; it won’t happen anymore. Second, to put an end to sin.This is plural in the Hebrew. Literally, this means, to deal with the individual sins that have happened, to break the power of sin. As you know, sin begets sin. We live in a fallen world with a sin nature that begin with Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit. This seemingly never-ending cycle will in fact come to an end. Third, to atone for wickedness. Atonement is reversal of the alienation or separation from God caused by sin. Fourth, to bring in everlasting righteousness. As sin is restrained, its power is broken, and it is atoned for, perfect righteousness is brought in and it will last not for a generation or even a few generations, but forever and ever. Fifth, to seal up, or end, vision and prophecy. Why? Because there will be no more sin, no more drama in history. Conflict is over. New revelations will cease, because all will be revealed. We will see clearly. And it truly will be happily ever after.And sixth, to anoint the most holy. Anointing, symbolized in the Old Testament by the pouring of oil over the head of someone about to be king, will find its fulfillment in a final anointing. And this anointing will be to the King of kings who reigns forever, the Most Holy, Jesus, the Lamb of God.

“Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. – Daniel 9:25-26a

There are multiple possible interpretations here, but I agree with those who say the sevens (which is literally what it says in the Hebrew) refer to seven years. The context earlier in the chapter is 70 years, and so it makes sense that the unit remains years. We’ll see another reason for believing this when we look at Daniel 11. Daniel has prayed because he realizes a 70-year period is about to finish, but the angel comes and brings a greater picture, one of 70 sevens of years.

Now, I also want to mention the theory that years are 360 days. There are multiple reasons for this theory, but I want to give you two Biblical ones. In Daniel 7, it says that the great tribulation will last for a time, times (two times), and half a time, that is, 3 ½ “times,” or years. Revelation 13 says the tribulation will last 42 months. And Revelation 12 says it will last for 1260 days. 1260 divided by 42 is 30, so we seem to be talking about 30-day months. And 1260 divided by 3.5 is, you guessed it, 360. So this seems to imply 12 30-day months in a year, giving 360-day years.

So that’s an argument primarily based on the last book of the Bible, Revelation. Going to the first book, we also can find an argument for this. Genesis 7 and 8 say the flood began on the 17th day of the second month and that the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat on the 17th day of the seventh month; that’s five months. And twice, once in Genesis 7 and once in Genesis 8, it says that this time duration was 150 days. This also gives you 30 day months. So there is a consistency in this description.

Now, from the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One comes is69 sevens of years, broken into a first 7 and the next 62. The rebuilding, which you would think would happen in the first 7, is done in times of trouble. Then there is the 62 sevens of years, and following this, the Anointed One is cut off and has nothing.

Well, this gets tricky, because there are four different decrees given in Scripture. Three are in the book of Ezra; one by Cyrus, one by Darius, and one by Artaxerxes. By the way, none of these specifically mention rebuilding the city; they all speak to rebuilding the Temple.

But there is a fourth decree, and this one is in Nehemiah chapter 2. Here it is:

In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before; so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.” I was very much afraid, but I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” The king said to me, “What is it you want?” Then I prayed to the God of heaven, and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it.” Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?” It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time. I also said to him, “If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests. – Nehemiah 2:1-8

Notice that this is for rebuilding the city. Also we are told it is the 20th year of Artaxerxes, and history books seem to agree on the date of 465 B.C., as to when he began his reign. Compared to most dates from this far back, this one is remarkably well agreed upon. His 20th year is 445 B.C. Seven weeks of years later, 49 years, is 396 B.C., and careful study of Nehemiah shows this is when the city was completed. And certainly, reading Nehemiah, you can read how this was done through times of trouble. We as a church went through Nehemiah not long ago, and this was plain to see. Incidentally, 396 B.C. is also when the Old Testament canon was completed. It’s as if, as of that date, the Temple is completed, the city is completed, and God’s word is completed. And there are no more prophecies, nothing, until the coming of John the Baptist.

What about the trench? Well, when you build a wall, you build a trench. The wall needs to go down below dirt level or people can easily dig under it. And so, building a trench was a part of the process of building Nehemiah’s wall.

And then there are the 62 sevens, or weeks of years, until the Anointed One, literally, Messiah the Prince, comes. Comes where? Well, since the focus of Daniel’s prayer was Jerusalem, and the focus of what the angel has said so far is Jerusalem, the natural answer is that it is the coming of Messiah, or the Anointing of the Prince in Jerusalem. And Jesus was anointed with oil shortly before coming to Jerusalem, and then he entered in, the so-called triumphal entry, with palm fronds waving and so forth, with the crowds proclaiming Him messiah and king (again, anointing was what you did in the Old Testament for one who was to be proclaimed king), and so when was this? If you do the math with 360 day years, you end up with 32 AD.

By the way, did you notice the month in the Nehemiah passage? Nissan. The crucifixion occurred on Passover, which, according to Leviticus 23, is Nissan 14. The triumphal entry was 4 days before, Nissan 10. So it even has the month right.

And then, what does it say? The Messiah will be cut off and have nothing. As for the Hebrew for cut off – the most common meaning is to be killed. The Messiah will be killed. It also means to be forever cut off from God’s people, one of the most severe punishments in Exodus, and it also means to be cut down, like a tree.

I have gone long today, so we will need to finish Daniel 9 next week. But I want you to reflect on what we have seen in this prophecy: a description of what Jesus will ultimately do, end everything that is related to sin, bringing in righteousness, serving as the Anointed One, the Messiah, the King of kings, and also a perfectly accurate timeline from the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem to the triumphal entry of Christ. It is amazing, and compelling, and I wish it were shouted from the rooftops. And don’t forget Daniel’s awesome prayer, a powerful model for us to pray with humility, bathed in Scripture, keeping in mind both the love/forgiveness/mercy and the holiness/righteousness/judgment of God. And I encourage you to try praying in first person plural – God sees us as a “we” and so should we.